The quantity of multimedia data, such as home videos and digital photo collections, is increasing dramatically in recent years with the popularity of digital cameras and camcorders. Unlike text data, which is relatively easy to index and randomly access, it is much harder to index and efficiently access a home video collection or photo collection.
For average users to search, retrieve and browse their personal media collections can be time-consuming and inconvenient. There are numerous conventional media indexing and browsing systems available, but they have user interfaces that require a computer monitor, keyboard, mouse, and/or remote controller to search for and locate the media content to be viewed on the computer, usually according to navigation hints on the computer screen or TV monitor.
One conventional system prints out a browsing guide for news or meeting video. It enables browsing by placing a bar code for scanning on the printouts. But this conventional system is not natural for easy home browsing of a video library.